Hi, I'm Dan Pramette, and welcome to Axios Recaps special series on America's business comeback.

Today's Saturday, May 29th.

Memorial Day gas prices are up to a seven-year high.

We're down to our last episode of this special series and focused on what comes next for small businesses.

America's small business community is recovering from the pandemic, but it hasn't yet

recovered.

That was the message yesterday from U.S. Small Business Administrator Isabel Guzman,

testifying in front of a House Financial Services subcommittee.

She talked about why her agency is asking for around a nine and a half percent

budget increase and then also said this. We successfully launched $28.6 billion restaurant revitalization

fund. As of Monday, when the application portal closed, we'd received than 372,000 applications

representing over $76 billion in requested funds.

In other words, that restaurant program is basically out of money, just weeks after launching,

which reflects how many small businesses continue to need or at least want help,

despite many of these positive recovery stories we've heard during this week's special series.

For Guzman, this is a very different SBA from the one she was last in during the Obama administration

before leaving to work on small business issues in California.

Its footprint is a lot larger, particularly from having overseen the PPP.

It's also under greater scrutiny and needs to navigate a steeper path forward than did the SBA coming out of the 2008 financial crisis.

The real question and challenge now is how Gussman transitions the agency from crisis footing to growth.

So in 15 seconds, we'll go deeper with her to better understand SBA's plans and what sorts of small businesses

still need assistance.

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